Adobe and Microsoft have a common enemy

Commentary: Merger between two would be complementary, in theory

BERKELEY, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Every analyst who has looked at the possibility that Microsoft Corp. and Adobe Systems Inc. would merge in some way or another has concluded that such a deal does not make a lot of sense for a lot of different reasons.

I disagree. Except for one conflict with Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight, a merger would be very complementary for both companies.

That is kind of where things end, though, in theory. On everything from corporate style and concepts about user interface to attitudes toward customers, these two companies could not be further apart. It would be like a merger between the Vatican and Hezbollah. You just know that it would not work out.

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But the elephant in the room is the common enemy of both companies: Apple Inc. Both Microsoft
MSFT, +1.57%
and Adobe
ADBE, +0.78%
must be galled at Apple’s
AAPL, +1.63%
magic touch.

Apple has stiffed Adobe regarding Adobe’s Flash animation technology on all its newer products. You cannot use Flash on an iPhone or iPad.

In addition, Apple has continued development of Aperture, its photo-editing program with its sights set on Photoshop. The company also dominates Adobe Premiere Pro with its Apple Final Cut Pro.

Microsoft has a similar problem in areas where Apple competes with the company. Except for its fading Windows monopoly in the enterprise, Apple makes mincemeat of Microsoft when the companies compete head-on.

The software giant’s only inroad with Apple is with Office for the Mac, and that seems like a symbiotic relationship that will disappear any minute.

Now that Apple has a leading role in the smart-phone and pad-computing arena, Microsoft has got to be concerned enough to look for advantageous mergers or minimally some sort of strategic partnerships.

Everyone knows an M&A deal would be a disaster for the two companies and their customers. Worse, it would actually benefit Apple during the ensuing confusion.

Yet this is where it ends, and it would shock every analyst and probably every Adobe customer if any sort of deal beyond some marketing alliance or joint development happened.

Everyone knows it would be a disaster for the two companies and their customers. Worse, it would actually benefit Apple during the ensuing confusion.

The problem is Microsoft and its corporate culture of arrogant meddling. Essentially the entire Adobe product line would be decimated by Microsoft designers — who, like relentless army ants, would insist on “improving” the Adobe products, especially the incredibly unintuitive and arcane user interfaces and overall product structures.

The best example of how this works is the pathetic story of Microsoft FrontPage, a dominating and superb Web-editing tool that began as Vermeer FrontPage back in 1994-95, which is about as far back and you can get.

Microsoft bought the company and began “improving” what was probably the best Web-development tool of its era into a Microsoft product with endless and needless changes and tweaks. Within a few generations, the product was unusable and a mess.

The inner workings of the way development works within the Microsoft corporate structure has fascinated observers over the years. Suffice it to say that it is not conducive to good things happening to alien code.

In other words, Adobe eventually would die the death of a thousands cuts as the minions at Microsoft “fixed” the Adobe products to fit into the ant-like Microsoft way of doing things.

Luckily, none of this will come to pass since a deal is not going to happen anyway. If common sense doesn’t prevent it, the government will.

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